Get Out And Vote Or Mail In Your Ballot

by
admin on
31st-October-2013

Hardy L. Brown

This coming Tuesday, November 5th is another Election Day in several cities in the Inland Empire for city councils, mayors and school boards.

Most people do not understand how important it is to vote and elect citizens that will make public policies that will work for the betterment of all citizens. And when they fail to vote it allows others to make decisions for them that might work against their best interest.

Let me share a few examples:

In Washington DC we had a government shut down by a few Republicans who had a political agenda against people getting health care driven by their hatred of the nation’s first African American president. These are elected people who would rather throw away the government and deny their own citizens from having access to one of the basic rights that every citizen deserves.

On the state level we had the Democrats take away redevelopment tools from all local governments because they said a few had abused it and therefore no one could use it. They also took away vehicle registration fees from local cities. These types of decisions helped put several cities in the Inland Empire near bankruptcy and one in bankruptcy.

On the local level we have some shady elected officials voting based on campaign contributions. In Moreno Valley they have a major investigation going on because a developer bought several elections and helped pick the city manger to carry out their policies. In San Bernardino the same kind of elected officials have been elected, instead, from the funds of its public safety employee associations. They have even funded the campaigns of the city attorney who pursues more political than legal arguments during the council meetings to sway the council members’ votes for public safety employees. As a result of this situation, public safety employees retire early at 90% of their highest salary and are living longer in retirement than they worked, thus leaving no funds for other needed city services.

As a matter of fact these associations have heavily supported four council members: Wendy McCammack, John Valdivia, Robert Jenkins, and Chas Kelley, who had to resign. Valdivia and Jenkins voted last week to prevent the staff, what’s left of it, from even getting outside information to see if these services could be performed at a lower cost.
Kelley could not vote because he had to resign from office because he used some of his campaign money for personal reasons and failed to report it on his 460 filing form. But in agreement to get a lighter sentence he pleaded guilty and wore a wire to record conversations of other elected officials. It is reported that McCammack conveniently caught a bad cold that prevented her from attending the council meeting last week because of the agenda item and the rumor that the FBI was looking to raid someone’s office. We have not been able to confirm if the raid occurred or not.

So you might ask the question, why should I vote? Your vote is important. There are still a few days left for you to send in your ballot or go in to the registrars’ office by Tuesday November 5th and cast your vote for the person of your choosing.

In San Bernardino, I am recommending you vote for:

Rikke Van Johnson, Mayor
Gary Saenz, City Attorney
Virginia Marquez, City Council
Roxanne Williams, City Council
Fred Shorett, City Council
Abigail Medina, School Board
Danny Tillman, School Board